A Lethal Legal Dose

I’ll start this blog with a disclaimer. Medicine and science have been pivotal and paramount in the advancement of civilizations, societies and life in general. Without them, life would be very different from how we know it today.

300-400 years ago, the life expectancy of the average person was around 35 years old. That’s not for poor people only. Rich people used to die at—what’s considered by today’s standards—a very young age. People mainly relied on witchcraft and hocus pocus to cure diseases.

I read somewhere that King Henry VIII had 16 offspring, and only 4 survived infancy. He himself died at the young age of 55 due to the complications that arose from his leg injuries; a somewhat minor curable disease by today’s standards.

The point I would like to state is that medicine is extremely important for our survival and without it the average life expectancy of humans wouldn’t have risen from 35 years to 75 years in 400 years.

This song is not a diss on medicine, but on how many doctors and professionals abuse this profession and feed on the fear, trust, and sometimes lack of information of the common person.

I know a lot of people that start popping pills left, right, and center whenever they get the flu or have a small headache. If they feel a minor discomfort, they would go to the hospital and the dealer, er, doctor there. The doctor would prescribe 20 different types of medications that will effectively damage their liver, lower their immune system, and supposedly remove the discomfort in 2-3 days which, in normal conditions, a healthy immune system and a few natural condiments like ginger, honey or oranges would take care of in the same duration.

A few years back, I didn’t care a lot about my health. I adopted an unhealthy lifestyle of sloth and laziness. Like many people, I attributed my laziness to lack of time. “I have work, I have friends, I have a personal life - where would I find the time to move and work out?”

In addition to not looking good, I used to get constantly sick. The flu, stomach pains, and headaches were a commonality in my life.

The wake up call to me was when I saw myself taking more than five medications daily, and I was only in my 30s. I said to myself, “If I’m in my 30s and I’m taking all these medications, what am I going to leave for my later years? How many pills will I be popping in my 60s…if I even reach that age? How weak is my immune system? How much damage am I putting on my liver by ingesting all these chemicals?”

I decided to do something about it. I decided to stop taking medications and to stop visiting doctors for stupid reasons, and to work out a little bit. Instead of taking flu medicine when I got sick, I started drinking ginger, tea with a little honey, and eating foods rich in vitamin C.

I noticed massive improvements in my health. I went back to swimming, a sport that I excelled at in my teenage years, and the gym became a routine in my life.

Slowly and surely my body looked better. My moods improved. I became sick less and less and I believe that my immune system grew stronger.

I have a theory that the immune system is like a muscle. Basically if you take care of it and nourish it, it will grow stronger. If you train it to fight diseases, it will do so. The normal, healthy human body is designed to fight common ailments without the help of medications. My theory is that taking a lot of medications can be counterproductive—the immune system becomes lazy and weak and, in the end, the body becomes prone to more diseases.

This is just my theory. I’m not advising anyone to follow it. Some people need the help of doctors and need to take medications if they are weak or suffering from chronic diseases. All I’m saying—and it’s what has worked for me—is that if you're a normal, healthy person, biting the pain a little bit when you get a headache or start sneezing will make your immune system work harder, and subsequently stronger, in fighting diseases.

I don’t like diets. I like to enjoy food, desserts, occasional alcoholic beverages, and more fun vices in life. However, I believe that when things are done moderately, with regular exercising and watching your diet a little bit, you’ll become “strong as an ox,” as they say.

With this lifestyle, I honestly don’t recall the last time I was sick. A couple of months ago, I received an automated message from one of the hospitals that said “we miss you, here is a 20% off coupon for your next visit.” I was like: “Thank God you miss me. I hope to never set foot in your premises again.” When your pharmacist or hospital sends you a message like that, you know that you’re doing something right.

This brings me to the second and more dangerous point of my song—the consumerism and sales mentality of many doctors, pharmacists, and the medical industry nowadays. Sell, sell, sell, and sell more. Make more profits. Get them addicted to your product.

We all watched movies like “Pain Hustlers” and the mini series, “Painkiller.” Instead of curing their patients, Big Pharma does the exact opposite; by getting their patients addicted to their product and eventually killing them without taking any responsibility for the matter. All this for the sake of making more profits. As Ozzy Osbourne says, “God bless the almighty dollar.” Humans have become a cheap, perishable commodity for the sake of more profits.

We all know how athletes, supposedly healthy people, get addicted to Oxy. How many wrestlers and football players have died because of that addiction? We’ve all read about our favorite rock stars getting addicted to antidepressants and, eventually, killing themselves—all for the sake of lining the pockets of Big Pharma executives and doctors who have broken the Hippocratic Oath. Sell more, consume more, die more.

Our health and the health of our loved ones are the most important things to us. So we put the utmost trust in who we think are educated, smart, scientific, and honest people who know more than we do about medicine and health. These “dealers dressed in white” abuse our trust, take advantage of our fear for our health and the health of our loved ones, and prescribe unnecessarily dangerous medications to get their commission or win a trip to Paris for meeting their target by selling more pills.

Sometimes I wonder who is worse: the street crack dealer or these so-called doctors.

I blame the common man a tiny bit here. Educate yourself a little, if you can, and bite the pain a little bit. A headache doesn’t require medicine. It requires rest and sleep. A flu doesn’t need 10 pills. Your grandma’s recipe of soup, ginger, and lemon works wonders. Listen to Grandma instead of the money-hungry doctor.

I blame the competitive system which thrives on more and more and more…a lot more. Medicine is unfortunately part of this capitalistic, consumerist system, when it should’ve been immune to it. Pun intended.

In the end I have to go back to how I started this blog. Not all doctors are street dealers; but many are. Not everyone should stop seeking professional help, but a mild headache from downing 15 pints at the pub, or diarrhea because you ate 5 burgers with fries and coke and dessert at “Five Guys” are curable illnesses with known stupid causes. They do not need a visit to the doctor. They need common sense and rest.

People that have chronic diseases should seek professional help. My advice here is to ask a lot, research a lot and seek different opinions. Maybe your doctor is truthful but maybe they are not.

One of my favorite lines in the song is, “A pill to cure another pill.” That’s Big Pharma’s ultimate dream. More pills = more $$$ for their deep pockets. Don’t fall into their trap.